The second sun was just beginning to set. In an alleyway, Raea was curled up in a ball, her head resting on her knees with her back against a wall. Light snores escaped from her mouth, and a strand of drool crawled down her leg. After escaping from the academy, her anger fueled her enough to fly away but not all the way to the rebel army. She had been subjected to sleep deprivation by the headmaster because of her inability to solve kudosu puzzles efficiently, and the lack of sleep finally caught up to her.

“There she is,” a voice said from the entrance to the alley.

A group of golden-robed angels peered into the dark alley. “I can’t believe there are still homeless people living in the first sector in this day and age,” one of the golden-robed figures said with a frown. He turned towards the civilian who reported Raea’s location. “You did well. Leave this place. We’ll take care of the rest.”

“Y-you aren’t going to kill her, right?”

“Rest assured. She’ll merely be relocated to a different location.”

The civilian hesitated before walking away. He took one last glance at the group before rounding a corner. A few seconds later, screams echoed through the air. They were unintelligible sounds of unadulterated fear escaping from an adult’s lips. The civilian paled, stopped in his tracks, and turned around. He was greeted by a wall of silent black flames rushing towards him. He didn’t have the chance to blink before he was reduced to ashes.

Raea frowned at the molten rock forming beneath her feet. The only thing left of the guardians were a few outlines of ash burned into the ground and walls. “I should’ve killed that headmaster,” Raea said to herself as she walked out of the alley. She yawned, and a green cloud of smoke escaped from her mouth. The lava wrapped around her feet, but it didn’t burn her. In fact, it felt quite comfortable. She wanted to lie down and roll around in it, but she had more pressing matters to deal with—the rebel army.

The fire in her chest that had been stifled by weariness regained its strength. Raea’s eyes became purple, and her footsteps quickened. Once she was out of the alley, her wings spread to their full length, casting a red glow on the surroundings. Her knees bent until her palms touched the ground. She pushed off and flapped her wings, launching herself above all the buildings in the city. Beneath her, there was a circle of spreading black flames. Hundreds of angels were running away as buildings collapsed behind them, melting into sludge. She wondered why Hailing Academy hadn’t melted. Was its materials that much better? Or did her flames become stronger after she slept? She heard angels screaming and crying for their family, but she ignored them and flew in the direction away from the setting sun.

Out of curiosity, she tried to use Palan’s powers of pride, but nothing happened. However, she wasn’t discouraged. She’d most likely run into him as she traveled towards the rebels. Her evolution was triggered by his. Logically, his next step would be to head towards the academy. She deduced he was still in the second sector based on his speed. She hadn’t even considered Palan finishing his evolution earlier than her.

There was no sign of the rebel army having crossed the checkpoint walls. The only source of chaos came from her own powers. If she had Sariel’s or even Pyre’s ability, she’d be able to find them quite easily, but since that wasn’t the case, she decided to check every nook and cranny with her own powers. Giant, black fireballs formed in the sky. They rotated, increasing in speed until they elongated into toothpick-like shapes. Raea’s eyes were cold as she hovered in the air above the city. The rebels had invaded the third sector using a system of tunnels. Why wouldn’t they do the same for the first? Raea pointed at a location where she thought a tunnel might be located, and one of the flame spears plunged towards the ground.

The air screamed and roared as the spear fell like a meteor. It pierced through half of a building, causing it to fall over. Raea squinted and peered at the hole the spear created. After her evolution, her vision had improved, and she could see the stitches of a robe on the ground from where she was. It was easy for her to see through the depths of the fiery tunnel. However, it was empty. A frown appeared on Raea’s lips when another four spears of flame failed to locate the rebels’ tunnels.

She decided to fly closer to the checkpoint wall, decorating the city with flaming holes along the way. Smoke rose into the air, and ashes began to spread through the streets that weren’t on fire. A ballistae bolt shot past Raea’s body, causing her to lose her balance for a second. She had entered the range of the weapons on the wall, but she was still unable to locate the rebels. Raea narrowed her eyes as another bolt flew towards her body. She extended her hand, covering her palm with an oily sheen. The tip of the projectile collided against the light and splintered into thousands of tiny fragments.

Raea snorted and raised her hand. A halberd made of black flames appeared in the sky. It expanded, and continued to expand until it blotted out the moon and cast a shadow that covered the length of the wall. Her torso twisted as she made a swinging motion. The halberd swept over the top of the red metal, not making contact with it. Hundreds of ballistae and angels were incinerated in an instant.

The halberd’s head raised back into the air, and Raea made a swinging motion at the ground. The earth churned, and canyons formed beneath her, filling with molten lava. She tore open the ground inside the wall, hacking away at it over and over again, but she was unable to find a single trace of a tunnel. She flew over the wall and cleaved the untouched ground, but there still weren’t any tunnels. The halberd whistled through the sky and embedded itself into the ground as Raea screamed. “Where are you!?”

Why couldn’t she find them!? The rebel army was coming from the west. She had flew away from the sun, heading west! Shouldn’t she have found at least one tunnel along the way? Unless they planned on … wait. Wait just one moment. She flew back into the city and landed in a relatively unburnt patch of road. She grabbed a screaming angel’s arm and slapped him across the face. “Stop screaming,” she said and narrowed her eyes at him.

The angel gulped and complied.

“If I follow the sunset, which direction am I going in?” Raea asked.

Liquid stained the angel’s pants. “W-west?”

Raea blinked. “Shit,” she said as she tossed the angel aside. He screamed as he flew through the air. She flew into the air and rubbed her chin. The eastern part of the city looked like it suffered through an apocalypse caused by multiple volcanic eruptions. “I went the wrong way.”